Emergency Rooms Gearing to Older Patients

Inspired by his mother’s suggestion, Rosenberg acted quickly. “He got together with his mother, her sisters and her bridge partners to discuss what the ideal ER for older and frail individuals would look like,” NextAvenue says. “Using their advice, St. Joseph’s University Medical Center in 2009 opened the nation’s first geriatric emergency department. Since then, the concept of ERs designed with older patients in mind has spread across the country.”

The article lists four features that set a geriatric emergency room apart from its more chaotic and noisy peers. These include:

• Properly Trained Staff: An accredited geriatric ER is staffed with nurses and doctors who have been carefully trained to work with older adults.
• Age-friendly Design Elements: These can include comfort features like thicker mattresses, dimmed lights and reduced noise, as well as safety items such as non-skid floors.
• A Thorough Risk Assessment: Staff at a geriatric ER are trained to ask older adults a different set of questions in order to identify factors that could make health problems worse. (We’ll review these below.)
• Community Resources: Geriatric ER staff members are able to connect patients with community resources they need to stay healthy.